Geegelup, Bridgetown
Submitted by Rookie on Mon, 08/16/2010 - 22:21
A good fun 7.5(ish) km stretch of the Blackwood from Bridgetown. Geegleup Cup is the DR State Champs, but open to many classes. Good fun weekend!
Organiser and details
Wildwater WA
Race Details
Robyn's notes
Good notes
Thanks Robyn, love the site!
River Level Update
Kumina Levels
Geegelup 2010 ... Juffy (and others) level prediction?
Can anyone shed light on Geegelup 2010 this Sat Sun (published details in topic above)?
I don't know this one very well, and have been lucky with high levels when I have paddled it. Good fun!
River levels are currently low but paddleable (see links above) ... rising now, but not much rain ahead.
Organizers seem keen to run it regardless, probably a good call, and good fun even if low.
What do others think of the levels down there? Anyone taking a punt yet?
Juffy - Do you know much about weather and levels down that way?
Nup
I don't pay attention to the other rivers, the Avon's hard enough to predict by itself. :)
gauge must be sinking in the mud
Geegelup caters exclusively to the down river boats. I have a play boat which is obviously too slow, and all my other boats have rudders which precludes me from entering this race... bummer as I live less than an hour away.
Levels seem to be off this year. I paddled this section last weekend with the DOW gauge reading 10.9 and it seemed a LOT lower than that. Felt lower than 10.6 from previous years. Major scraping on every rapid! Seriously reckon the DOW guage has sunk into the mud. Last year I paddled this section more than 20 times over various levels and had no problems. Probably not worth the effort unless this "new" reading is 11.1 for plastics or minimum of 11.4 for fibreglass. 10.8 was my previous minimum for paddling but this would now see exposed rocks on every rapid.
Geegelup cup long plastics
Hi Peter,
We have a long plastics class in the Geegelup cup. This year we had 4 boats enter that class. The level was 11.06 on the race weekend which was ok, yes a little scraping but it was a dream compared to this years Avon. Hope to see you there next year as it it is a great weekend of paddling.
Spencer
Clubs outside the metro area
Thanks Spencer
Damn... I asked in 2008 and again in 2009 and was told no. I should have asked again this year!
You will definitely see me there in 2011...
I probably need to join a club so I can get up to date info. Any one know which (if any) cater for members outside the metro area. Do the surf clubs get info from Canoeing WA?
How hard is to start a new club? And affiliate it?
Cheers
Peter
Geegelup cup long plastics
Hi Peter,
I raced in the long plastics division last year so who ever told you that you could not race unfortunately was misinformed. I think we had 4 paddlers in 2009 as well. Much higher water last year with most people taking 7 minutes longer this year for the same 7km course. Are you signed up to the CDU news letter as Terry has upcoming races in all of his weekly letters.
Spencer
other clubs
Hi Peter-
There is a list of CWA-affiliated clubs here:
http://www.wa.canoe.org.au/default.asp?MenuID=CLUBS/386/0/
The surf clubs are not affiliated with CWA although this may change in the future.
I went through the process of starting a new club (Indian Ocean Paddlers) two years ago, writing the constitution, getting it incorporated, setting up the bank accounts - it wasn't a huge amount of work but it was considerable. Then there is the day-to-day admin of the club which can start to become onerous - however if you do decide to go down the route of starting a new club, let me know and I'll share all the info I have with you.
-SG